we know, the temple structures of Central America are always placed with
reference _to the cardinal points_.


L. The Old, Black God.

[Illustration: Fig. 44]

God L's features are those of an old man with sunken, toothless mouth.
His hieroglyph is Fig. 44, which is characterized by the black face.

God L, who is also black, must not be confounded with M whose description
follows. L is represented and designated by his hieroglyph in the
accompanying text, in Dr. 14b and 14c and Dr. 46b; the figure has the
characteristic black face. He appears entirely black in Dr. 7a. The
hieroglyph alone occurs in Dr. 21b and 24 (third vertical line in the
first passage) with a variation, namely without the Ymix-sign before the
head. This deity does not occur in the Madrid and Paris manuscripts.

The significance of god L does not appear from the few pictures, which
are given of him. In Dr. 46b the god is pictured armed and in warlike
attitude. Both in Dr. 14b and 14c he wears a bird on his head and has a
Kan in his hand.

According to Förstemann, his day is Akbal, darkness, night.

Cyrus Thomas (Aids to the Study of the Maya Codices, in the 6th Annual
Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, 1888, p. 358) thinks he is
the god Ekchuah, who has come down to us as a black deity. God M seems,
however, to correspond to Ekchuah (see the description of M).